Is Newborn Affected by Parents Arguing Around Her?

by
MICHELLE JOHNSON Last Updated: Jun 13, 2017

Michelle Johnson

Based in southern Idaho, Michelle Johnson started writing in 1991. Her work has been published in the science fiction and fantasy journal, "Extrapolation." Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and a Master of Arts in fantasy literature, both from Hofstra University in New York.

Two smiling parents looking at their newborn in a hospital crib.Photo Credit XiXinXing/XiXinXing/Getty Images

Around 3.6 million babies are born each year, according to psychologist John Gottman. While the birth of a baby is generally a happy time, it also brings many changes and, often, a lot of stress. For some couples, the extra stress can lead to increased fighting. If you have a newborn, you should avoid fighting in front of her because the effects of your fighting can be very damaging.

Marital Dissatisfaction

Having a newborn can place a great strain on a marriage. Two-thirds of the couples Gottman studied found that the birth of their first child significantly reduced their happiness in their marriage. Exhaustion from caring for a newborn, sleep deprivation, lack of intimacy and postpartum depression all contribute to marital dissatisfaction. When parents feel overwhelmed and disconnected from each other, the amount of conflict between them increases. As a result, new parents often find themselves fighting.

Emotional Stress

Witnessing parents fight creates emotional stress for a newborn. Babies are highly attuned to their parents' facial expressions and tones of voice. Like little sponges, they absorb their parents' emotions. If a newborn's parents feel sad or worried, she may also feel sad or worried. Parental anger may frighten a newborn, causing her to cry. A newborn under stress because of her parents' fighting may become fussy, eat poorly and become difficult to console.

Unresponsiveness

Fighting hurts a newborn by distracting her parents and making them less responsive to her. Parents who feel stressed out and depressed by fighting may not have the emotional energy to respond sensitively to a newborn's crying and need for comfort and attention. If the newborn cries, her parents may be annoyed that she is distracting them from what they are trying to do -- fight. Instead of finding out what she needs or calming her down in a sensitive way, they may leave her crying alone in her crib or try to force her to be quiet by putting a bottle or pacifier in her mouth.

Relationship Damage

A parent's emotional unavailability threatens a newborn. If parents become unresponsive to their newborn's needs because of their fighting, it can harm her relationship with them. The Still Face paradigm -- an experiment studying what happens when a once-responsive mother stops interacting normally with her baby -- demonstrates how distressed babies become when their efforts to engage a parent's attention are ignored. A baby in the experiment may look away, cry and become increasingly agitated in her efforts to get her mother to interact with her. Even if the mother stops interacting with a baby for as little as two minutes, the baby may remain agitated and wary of her mother even after her mother begins interacting with her normally again.